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After so much snow and such extreme cold, this past weekend was incredibly nice with temperatures approaching 60. So we broke out the bikes and scooters and headed over to the blacktop at Molly’s school.

It was so warm that it melted the snow and ice, except for the stuff piled up on the side. It felt funny to be playing outside in the warmth on a blacktop surrounded by large walls of snow.

Leah was given this little bike by her friend Matilda last Fall, but didn’t get a chance to ride it before the cold. She wanted a little help at first since she had never really ridden a bike before, and Jen was happy to oblige.

Eventually Leah was doing it mostly herself with Jen fading into the background.

Leah in silhouette and shadow. I love her pose here. Makes her seem so much older than four.

She's a hopscotch champion. Leah may have a couple years before she’s in elementary school, but she’s already ready for recess. Please excuse the missed focus; she was moving very quickly.

Molly found a bit of chalk and drew a little, then gave it to Leah. Leah was more into it and stayed focused on drawing for some time.

Leah’s drawing a sun here with her tiny remnant of chalk in her little fingers.

Leah decided a fun game was to try to run into me with her bike. I had to snap this quickly before fleeing her attack.

By the end, Leah was getting around on her bike pretty well.

After an hour or so on the blacktop, we moved to the playground. Molly’s love for monkeys has turned her into a master of the monkey bars. Note that proper swinging technique includes sticking out your tongue at all times, even if your hair is in your face.

Slides are fun, whether they be twisty...

or straight.

While these pictures may look like Leah is posing for me, she is actually trying to avoid my camera. She would run by, briefly glance at me to taunt me, then disappear down the slide. Fortunately, I’m pretty quick and managed to catch her taunt a few times.

This time, Molly decided to help me by capturing Leah before she could run away from the camera.

We very much enjoyed our day of fun in the sun.

Of course, after our weekend of warmth, we've already had snow on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Just 2 or 3 inches between the two days, but still a dramatic turn from our warm weekend.

The fire department brings a Santa around in a sleigh to local neighborhoods. They stop at the pool by our house, so we braved the cold (it was just above 20) to go see him.

The sleigh was pulled by a fire department vehicle, which was led by a ladder truck. They drove through the neighborhood, though sadly not down our street.

As we have in previous years, we headed to Greenway Farm to cut down our Christmas tree. With the taller ceilings in our new house, we were looking for a taller tree than we've gotten in the past. Fortunately, the farm had lots of very tall (up to 14 feet) white pines for us to choose from. We chose this 10.5 foot tree, which gave us a little wiggle room to trim off when we got it home.

Despite its extra height, it came down pretty easily.

This taller tree hung off the back of the car a good bit. I had to drive very carefully on the way home, given all the speed bumps along the way.

We put the tree in our old tree stand. We've been saying we should replace it for the past year or two, but we never got around to it. As I was tightening down the bolts, the tree tipped and fell with a huge bang. Our sad old tree stand couldn't handle this bigger tree. So, I hurried to Target to get a new stand.

We had one evening free this week to decorate the tree, so we took advantage. Christmas music, lights, ornaments, and two very happy kids.

A lot of ornaments made it onto the bottom of the tree thanks to the maximum reach of the girls. Thankfully, they were happy to let me lift them up to put ornaments a little higher.

The taller tree meant I needed a ladder to put the angel on top, as well as some of the ornaments and lights up top.

We finished with the tree and headed upstairs to give the girls a bath. Right after they got in the tub, Jen heard a crash downstairs. The tree had fallen over - again. We quickly lifted it up to get the ornaments off. Thankfully, only a few of them had broken. We then set it back down while I ran to Home Depot to get another tree stand. This time it is one made of steel and stated to support 12 foot trees.

After putting on the new stand, then putting the lights and ornaments back on, we have a tree. Please stay up.

After spending the week in New York, G'Mom and Grampa joined us back in Maryland. We decided to take a trip down to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. And to get there, we had to take the fun route of riding the DC Metro. This was actually the girls' first ride on the Metro.

Leah studies the subway map carefully. Not sure how she's seeing it with her sunglasses on while we're underground.

We thought of making this trip because Molly's been asking to see dinosaur bones. Well, now she can see them, but I think this allosaurus is staring right back at her.

Some of the dinosaurs were very big. Those tiny figures under that tail are Molly, me, Grampa, and G'Mom.

Look. Up there. Swimming dinosaurs.

Look, Dad, look. Big prehistoric birds.

They had a hands-on area for kids to play with archeology-related things. Leah was a big fan of the binoculars.

They had a few microscopes that the kids could use to look at fossils up close.

There were some things (like this rock) in the main exhibits that said kids could touch them. This rock in the gemstones exhibit made a good seat.

Lots of shiny things. Naturally, pink and purple things were favorites of the girls.

Purple. And you could touch it, too.

The girls got to see the Hope Diamond up close and personal.

In the Insect exhibit, the girls got to see a tarantula.

Leah wasn't scared of the hairy spider at all, putting her face right next to the glass. I had a slightly different reaction.

After the bravery of my daughter, I got up close with the spider as well.

Grampa and Leah check out all the butterflies starting to emerge from their chrysalides.

After the museum, the girls got some popsicles on the national mall.

They made a mess, but enjoyed them thoroughly.

Snacking on the mall with the museum in the background.

Here we are, after a very fun trip to the museum, with the dome of the museum in the background.

I've been asked several times recently, "What did you do this summer?" We moved. Period. End of story.

However, we did take advantage of the beautiful summer we've been having and took a day trip to our favorite nearby theme park, Dutch Wonderland. We began our adventures above the park on the Sky Ride.

We then hopped on the Joust Family Coaster. Despite doing OK on it last year and looking excited to do it this year, Leah did not enjoy the ride.

Molly, on the other hand, loved the little coaster.

Both girls enjoyed the Leapin' Frogs.

The Panda Party was fun too.

They got to ride a pony as well. Molly took the larger one.

Leah took the smaller pony, which was just the right size for her.

The Fun Slide is one of the girls favorite things to do.

They didn't miss the Merry-Go-Round either. And yes, that's me on it with them (this picture sponsored by Dramamine).

We ate lunch at Merlin's Restaurant. After lunch, Merlin did a magic trick for Molly that amazed her.

Leah was sure that she would not be outsmarted by the trick, but to her surprise the ball in her hand magically became two.

Leah wasn't big enough to ride the Flying Trapeze yet, but Molly and Chad had fun on it.

Unlike the little girl next to her, Molly was excited to ride the Frog Hopper. After the ride, Molly looked a little less excited and a little more nauseous.

The girls may not look it, but they're actually aspiring monster truck drivers.

We took in a high-diving show of the frog prince. It included some impressive diving from the frogs and the princess.

Molly had fun on the Wonder Whip, though perhaps less so than she had last year with her buddy.

We went for a drive on the Sunoco Turnpike. Leah and I took one car and Molly and Chad took the next.

A nice, relaxing drive.

To end our day, we took a ride on the monorail.

We got together with Chad's family for a 4th of July BBQ, and Grams made this patriotic red, white, and blue trifle. Yum!

We didn't see any fireworks on the 4th of July, but we did go with friends to the Laurel fireworks the following Saturday. Molly loves fireworks, and spent most of the time with expressions of amazement on her face.

We weren't too close to the fireworks, but they were still loud. Leah was not a fan of this. Fortunately, she mellowed after a few minutes, and decided to enjoy watching them while covering her ears.

Leah even decided to take her hands off her ears after a little while (as long as they didn't get too loud).

Most of the fireworks ended up bringing a smile to Leah's face and a gasp of joy to Molly.

We have moved to our new house! We packed the boxes, but hired Perry Moving to move everything. They managed to load the truck, drive to the new house, and unload everything in just over 6 hours. We were amazed with how quick they did it and the brute strength of these guys. Well worth the money to not do it ourselves!

Chad made sure to have the girls' new bunk beds set up in the new house for our first night there, and they were so excited. The first few days were a bit of a transition period getting them to actually go to sleep, but they are doing great with it now.

KyKy's Hawaiian Ice is just outside our neighborhood, so we quickly ventured over to try it out.

No, Molly's not wearing makeup, but this raspberry ice works just as well as lipstick.

The week after we moved, Molly join two of her friends, Allison and Sydney, at Art Camp. They explored art through books and had a great week.

At the end of the week, the kids presented their artwork in an art show. Molly was excited to show us everything she had made.

We spent some family time at the mall yesterday. After haircuts for both girls, we had some Chick-fil-a for lunch. The girls quickly scarfed down their chicken nuggets and wanted more. I went to get them some ice cream cones, but Leah couldn't wait for me to return so she had to eat Molly's face.

There's a little bit of something on your face, Leah.

Great new haircuts and ice cream cones - what else could a girl want?

Her faces crack me up!

The fun at the mall wasn't over. We headed to Build-A-Bear with Christmas gift cards in hand. Here's Leah pressing the pedal to fill her first-ever Build-A-Bear.

Once filled, it was time to put the bear's heart in.

All sewn up and ready to go.

Before looking for some clothes for the bear, Leah had to bathe her bear using the brushes and air blowers. Molly already has a Build-A-Bear, but decided to get a Hello Kitty Smallfry to keep it company in addition to some new clothes.

The girls exclaimed our trip to be a super fun day! Molly's off of school today too, so we're headed to Pump It Up and an afternoon playdate for more fun with friends.

As a child, my family always drove through the lights at Celebration in the Oaks in New Orleans City Park. I have since always compared Christmas light displays to those memories. (I know, it might be a tad skewed since I was so little and the lights were so big, but whatev!) So, when my parents asked about going to see some lights, I knew just where to take them.

The night of the 23rd we headed to Brookside Gardens with some of our friends to see the trains and The Garden of Lights. Here are the six kids lined up to look at the trains before heading out into the cold to see the lights.

These are the same gardens we took pictures at a couple years ago. Molly and Leah had fun in this house then, too.

This is the same rail as this picture. She's a bit bigger now.

Mesmerizing lights

They had an impressive number of lights and some really cool light sculptures.

The girls had a great time running through all the lights.

Leah, the Ghost of Christmas Pretty Soon.

The kids all thought this tree of milk cartons was pretty neat.

By the end of the evening, our toes and hands were frozen, but there were still smiley, happy kids!

I would venture to say that this was the best lights display I'd been to. Walking through the lights was a unique way to experience them. So, if any locals have not made the trip down, here's my recommendation to do so!

We ended the night with a great dinner at Squisito. (Thank to EMK for the recommendation.) The kids had their own table, which was fantastic for everyone!

We again returned to Greenway Farm to cut down our Christmas tree. We took a family vote and opted to try out a white pine this year.

Molly thought this little tree was the cutest! She kept saying, "Mom, it's so little!"

Chad picked out a good saw this year and cut the tree down in no time.

That evening, it was time to decorate our new tree. Molly put on the first ornament.

The daddy ladder is sometimes required to reach the higher parts of the tree.

Leah was much more into putting ornaments on the tree this year than in years past.

All decorated and ready for Christmas. This is the earliest we've ever put up our tree, thanks to our very eager Kindergartener. We're hoping that we don't have a Charlie Brown tree come Christmas Day!